


Smoke

by TheWholeDamnTime



Series: Modern Vox Machina [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friendship, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-14 06:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWholeDamnTime/pseuds/TheWholeDamnTime
Summary: Getting high has always made Keyleth introspective, and today is no different.Something that was supposed to be a one-shot drabble about getting high that ended up being an introspective look into several characters.





	1. Keyleth

Keyleth liked to blow smoke.

It wasn’t just the syrupy, sticky sweetness of it that lingered on her lips and tongue or the lax, fluid feeling it gave her. The way it curled off her tongue was intoxicating in its own right. It was a bundle of emotions pulsing in her chest, filling her lungs with the way nostalgia swept her off her feet and she was a child again, blowing warm breaths into cold air pretending to be a dragon. Her eyes lingered on each swirl and twist the stream made as it slipped from between her lips, spinning into intricate patterns before slowly fading from view, contentment settling warm like a cat on her chest. Granted, Manxy was on her chest, but that was beside the point, she decided. Instead of pondering, she took another long drag from the burning thing in her hand and let it hold deep inside her lungs for just a second before it spiraled out of her mouth and nostrils, dancing through the fading evening sunbeams towards the ceiling and disappearing into the darkness above.

The florist smiled and ran her free hand down Manxy’s back, then trailed it through the lingering smoke, watching her fingers stir the slow, sluggish airflow into a beautiful chaos. It gradually, gently slowed again and she smiled. Reaching up to repeat the movement with a graceful sweeping motion, she took another breath of the syrupy air and added its thickness to the surrounding room, eyes affixed to its ever-shifting shape suspended above her as it dissipated into the haze.

These moments were bliss, letting the rushing rapids of her thoughts smooth down into the mellow twisted flow of a stream as the world slowed around her.

She missed Tiberius. Her eyes slowly cast over to where his side of the room had been, previously obscured by a curtain divider and filled to the brim with books, now covered in potted plants. Before he’d fallen to family pressure to go back to college in his home town, he’d been the best roommate and friend she ever could have hoped for as she made the transition into the real world. The commune was wonderfully helpful, yes, but no one knew very much, too ingrained in their own lifestyle to learn or remember the ways of those outside. Tiberius had been kind, if a bit pompous, and was her first friend. He’d taught her gently how things worked, from legal transactions at the beginning of her business to basic societal mannerisms. A slow smile crawled over Keyleth’s face as her eyes found a particularly large bloom, remembering the letter she’d received with the clipping.

* * *

 

My flower princess,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. As I have returned to Draconia to complete my studies, I thought it best to continue our correspondence in a number of ways. You’ve hopefully received a phone call by the time this letter has arrived ( _Keyleth grinned, remembering the first awkward FaceTime conversation where Tibs didn’t seem to understand how close to the camera he was_ ) and there should be a form of that phone-based “Instant Messaging” you so enjoy following. With this form of communication (the proper form, if you ask me), I have sent along, enclosed within this letter, a snippet of a flower species found only here in Draconia. I thought you might enjoy its blossoms, and perhaps be so kind to grow it as a keepsake of the time I spent with you and our dear friends.

Forever your faithful friend,

Tiberius Stormwind

* * *

 

 _Always so stuffy and formal,_ she thought, _even when he was high._ Slowly, her mind flickered back to the image of her friend lounging in his ridiculously large chair, the smoke lazily curling from his nostrils as he waxed poetic about his studies in long, drawling words made longer by the sensation of the world slowing around her. A sad smile pulled at her lips. She missed him. Tiberius had been her first friend when she left the commune, her first introduction to the outside world and a guiding hand whenever it became too much. She missed telling him he looked like a dragon, curled among his hoard of books with smoke settled around his body and lazily pouring from his nose and mouth. He’d retort that if he was a dragon, then she was a captured princess and she’d just laugh, happy and warm with the evening sunlight streaming through the windows and lighting them in soft oranges and reds.

Nostalgia was weird, and surprisingly common when she smoked alone. Maybe this was why she usually smoked with Zahra, rambling on about the earth and nature and what the witch was going to be doing the next full moon. Those days were blissful, filled with talk of how magical the earth _felt_ , even if she wasn’t sure it was truly magical. The tattoo artist liked to trace runes in the air, drawing them through the long streams of smoke with lazy, languid fingers and a slow smile on her face. Sometimes she left little stones in the planters, or Keyleth would find little symbols drawn onto the sides, things meant to spark life and growth into her work and something warm would bloom in the florist’s chest and take root there, reminding her that she was cared for and loved.

And then there were the days that Vax would arrive with treats. He loved to spoil her, and she wasn’t sure why, but there was something there that fluttered warm in her belly and tugged a smile across her face no matter what mood she was in. He liked to buy Girl Scout cookies almost religiously, and all the little girls in the city knew him as the “Black Bird Man”, dressed in his dark clothing and crows following him around almost religiously. Vex had even gotten so tired of his cookie buying habits she’d had Percy fix her up a little freezer, just to preserve the treats. So Vax would come by, always brushing a wild crow off his shoulder or head so Manxy wouldn’t try and make it the next meal, and hand her whatever box he’d decided on for the day. He didn’t like to smoke himself, but rather flourished on the contact high, leaning back against the couch as she blew pretty patterns in the air or talked to Zahra. Sometimes she’d pillow her head on his stomach and they’d lie there, simply content to be together as the sun streamed through the slow curls spiraling away from Keyleth’s lips. It was peaceful and calm and there was something beautifully reassuring about his warmth pressed against hers.

The cookies probably didn’t hurt either.

Whoever she was with, whoever’s warmth settled beside her amongst the haze of smoke and the setting sun, she was happy. She had family here, a new family, something solid and sturdy that she loved and that loved her back in a way she never thought possible. And it was good.

 _So good_ , she thought, her body silhouetted against the warm sunset rays streaming through her window. _Love is so good_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keyleth's chapter! This fic was originally supposed to be entirely about her, part of some research gathering information from friends about what they experience when they get high, but slowly expanded into the three-part/three-character fic that I have now. It also peeks into the relationships between Keyleth and a few of the other characters, the nostalgic kind of feeling you get when you have something and love it and it's just not there in the moment. I hope you enjoyed this and the chapters to come, and please remember I survive off of your comments and critiques!!!


	2. Percy

Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III couldn’t remember the first time he’d smoked a cigarette to save his life.

It had to be sometime between his fifteenth and sixteenth birthday. His older brothers always had the things lying around and he must have tried them at some point, because after the fire they became an addiction.

The fire swept through almost everything. His house, his family, his life- and maybe it was counter-intuitive for him to find solace in the smoke but _damn it_ , he still did. Within a month of the Briarwoods becoming his and Cassandra’s legal guardians he’d run like hell, taking to the streets and making his way in the world with what quick wit and clever mind he could piece together. Ever since, it had been a comfort. Cold night? Cigarette. Felt terrible? Cigarette. No meal for the evening? Cigarette. It became second nature to pull one out of the package and strike a flame with a lighter, watch the tip glow red and watch the long draws and breaths become spiraling shapes in the streetlights’ glow. The stress or pain or fear would melt away, floating off into the night with each whisp and swirl that wreathed around him. The habit had really gotten away from him when he’d returned, finally old enough to take legal guardianship over his sister and send the Briarwoods packing. That much responsibility weighed on him, even if Cass was pretty self-sufficient. He would stand in front of the house, leaning against a pillar as his breaths wreathed him in smoke, blurring his outline and trying desperately to slow the whirring of his mind. Percy couldn’t help but feel like he needed to help somehow, to provide, and so he went to the nearby auto shop and asked for work. The eccentric man who ran the place practically on his own, a one-armed man called Viktor, hired him on the spot and the two had struck up an unlikely partnership around the small shop. Percy would take his breaks out of the flammable materials zone, leaning against a tree next to the road and watch the cars race by as he let the wisps of darkness fill his lungs with each breath, let them sink into his clothes and hair as he breathed it in, letting it settle his mind and nerves before he’d go back to work.

After Cass herself had become of age, the habit slowed down again. Two a day became one a day, and that dwindled until it was maybe a few times a week. His job at the autoshop was routine, day in, day out, wacky employer, the occasional explosion, steady customer flow, and things slowly mellowed into a grey blur of days. It wasn’t stressful, but it also wasn’t good. There was little warmth, no real spark of energy, his sister buried deep in her college textbooks and he himself building a small workshop of his own in one of the stand-alone garages.

That was when Vox Machina had stumbled into his life.

They’d stumbled into The Black Powder Machine Shop one night, soaking wet from a storm, and things had just fallen into pace after that. The group picked him up and carried him with them from one adventure to the next, taking him for what he was and embracing him with a sudden comradery. They were very much like him, a scattered assortment of misfits and outcasts and for some reason, it just worked.

The deep-seated need he once had was quelled, for now. He had family and new friends that cared for him on a level that simply floored him, and things were good. The feeling of the darkness pouring from his lips and nose simply wasn’t needed when Vex uncontrollable laugh harmonized with Trinket’s barking, or Grog clapped him on the back with heaving guffaws, or Pike hugged him around the middle, or Keyleth waxed poetic about her newest bloom, or Scanlan sang ridiculously filthy renditions of their favorite songs, or Vax used his birds to harass anyone with vaguely shiny things on them. Things were warm and energetic and full of life now, with them adding new twists and turns to his days, bringing fire and sparks racing through his veins. Things were _good_ , and he’d never change that.

For now, he didn’t need to blow smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Percy's chapter! I tried to make it clear that smoking is his Orthax parallel, something that will hopefully become more clear during the fics where he has to cope with guilt or anger (two of which are currently in the works!). I will note that those might take a while, as I have six different fics all being worked on at once and currently in varying degrees of completeness. They will be coming, though! There are quite a few, and I'll be posting the chapters as I get around to them. For now, though, I hope you enjoyed this and the chapter to come, and please remember I survive off of your comments and critiques!!!


	3. Vex'ahlia

Vex’ahlia loved the forest with all her soul. It was the rushing of green past her as she bound from log to log, as she sprinted through the trees with her braid whipping behind her and Trinket bounding between the thick trunks, weaving in and out of view with a sloppy grin on his face. Her enormous newfoundland would lope along beside her, running ahead or hanging back but always coming back to his mummy as they raced deeper and deeper into the forests. Finally, when she could feel the real world fading behind her, she slowed and looked for a tree with low branches. Grinning, she reached up and swung her body into the tree, bounding from branch to branch until she was easily thirty feet up, leaning back against the solid trunk and letting her heavy breaths start to slow.

It was a cold, misty day, one where the fog was settled low in the air and curled around each branch like strange tentacles, its touch chilled and exhilarating. As her chest heaved, she watched each breath swirl off to join the cloud around her, lips curling at the edges to gently smile as she let her head fall back against the bark, a warm feeling of contentment in her chest a frigid contrast to the air that rolled over her skin. Trinket barked up at her once, his usual response to her going up so high, but satisfied himself with patrolling around the roots, nose snuffling in the dirt and detritus that made up the forest floor. Her fingers coasted over the roughness of the bark, the smoothness of new leaves, textures of the world around her dampened by the cloud that lay over the trees like a cloak, wrapping her in its soft chill and surrounding them in a soft, muted grey. These days were beautiful, the kind that needed quiet appreciation and reverence from the highest point she could reach. It filled something in her soul, gave her a sense of being complete as her eyes tracked small critters in the brush, her ears catching each rustle and churn of the branches, her tongue tasting the crispness of the moisture-laden air perfumed with the freshness of trees and earth settling in her senses.

This was where she felt the most at peace. She could still remember when she and Vax had run away from home, taking to the streets rather than deal with their insufferable father any longer. She had led them away from the usual homeless haunts and into the woods, curling beneath trees and rocks in hidden alcoves rather than taking a chance with other people. She learned to hunt and trap from library books, learned the ins and outs of living off the wilderness while her brother took more to the streets to survive. But no matter what, they would always come back to one and other. Summers were spent in the shelter of the trees, the warm nights enough to let them sleep under the stars, while winters were spent huddled up against warm brick walls or in all-night diners until they were kicked out for buying nothing but cheap cups of coffee with what pocket change they had.

Trinket barked, pulling her from her daydreaming reverie, and she looked down to see him sitting at the base of the trunk, wagging his tail and looking up at her expectantly. Vex couldn’t help but smile and shimmy down the trunk, settling at its base and letting her massive dog sprawl itself over her lap in a plea for affection. A soft chuckle brushed past her lips and she scratched behind his ears, feeling him let out a content huff in satisfaction.

She’d found him out here, all those years ago.

* * *

She’d found him in the woods on a misty night, a low-fog night that settled over the area as her brother bedded down for the night. It was early fall, still warm enough for them to properly settle in between the trees, not yet cold enough to demand the huddled desperation of winter within the city's limits. She was keeping a watch for wild creatures and people alike, eyes sharp and apprehensive, every fiber of her being on edge. Just last week a few hikers had almost stumbled across them, and since then she had yet to settle back into the ease of a comfortable night watch. Tonight, though, was peaceful. The moonlight illuminated the fog around her with a slow and subtle glow, the light dappling off the leaves and dripping down the trunks that surrounded their little camp.

Vex was methodically whittling away at a branch, crafting a little four-legged figurine of something. She wasn't very good, so she wasn't quite sure what it was going to be, but it was slowly coming to form in her hands and as she raised it up to the soft glowing light of the moon to examine her work, a long whining sound jerked her attention away. The energy and adrenaline that suddenly rushed through her blood sent her to her feet, her head turning in sharp jerks in every direction. After a few tense moments of apprehensive waiting, Vax'ildan snored slightly and shifted near her feet, and she rolled her eyes, settling back into a cross-legged position, assuring herself it had simply been a passing creature. Another few moments passed, her knife rhythmically scraping lines of fur into the little wooden animal's hide, before the sound came again. It was sharp and desperate, and as it drew out longer in the darkness, Vex cocked her head to the side. It didn't sound interested in making her and her brother into its next meal, as she'd thought the first time. Instead, it seemed... desperate. Pleading. Slowly, she rose and stepped towards the edge of the clearing. Her blade still at the ready, her light footsteps carried her closer and closer, cautiously inching towards the source of the sound. Just around the next bush, she saw it- a lump of brown fur, so large she instinctively flinched back, thinking it was a bear. It raised its head and whimpered again, the sound pitiful and large, sorrowful puppy eyes gazing up at her, Vex realized that it was a dog.

It was laying curled up, back to her, and as she stepped closer to examine it she saw blood streaked and matted in is hide. She took a cautious step forward and heard a low growl, the slightest glint of teeth, and froze. Her hand barely moving, she stretched it out towards the creature. Its nose twitched and the teeth disappeared, and she took another careful step. The teeth reemerged, and she sighed softly, resigning herself to spend the next half-hour coaxing the creature to let her closer.

When she could finally rest a hand on its hide, gently pulling aside long red-smeared fur, a soft yipping sound came from its belly. Vex’s hands startled away from the thick, claw-like gashes as a small head pulled itself free of its mother’s warm hold around him. A little smear of blood on its forehead darkened the fur there, but he otherwise looked unharmed. “Oh, baby,” she cooed softly, wiping the blood away with gentle fingers. The mother’s breathing huffed slightly, and she quietly nudged the puppy away so she could take a closer look at the wounds.

They were deep, blood still oozing out, and it was clear that the mother didn’t have long no matter what Vex could have done. There was a long sigh from the mother as she watched the girl crawl to rest the large dog’s head on her lap, gently stroking her fur away from her eyes and whispering soft words to her, comforting her as she took long, slow breaths that over the next hour, faded into nothing.

It wasn’t even a question of what to do when the puppy started to whimper, the body growing cold. Vex lifted up the small pup and tucked him into her sweatshirt, his head poking out under her chin. She covered the body with leaves before she headed back to where her brother was still sleeping, light snores and a thin trickle of drool from his mouth. She let him rest, let the puppy slowly fall asleep in her hoodie, and sat there, whittling away at the small figure she’d decided was going to be a bear. Gentle scrapes added texture and fur, and as she finished it off, she smiled to herself and added a little hole just under the ridge of the spine.

She pulled a piece of twine from her pocket and strung the rough little bear on it, pulling the sleep bleary puppy out of her sweater and tying it gently around his neck. “There. That will be your collar.” The puppy wiggled in her hands and barked excitedly, and Vax suddenly jumped awake, eyes wide.

“Where’d you get that?” he gasped, eyes wide and breaths slowing from adrenaline-fast to resting as he took in the area around them.

“Found him. He should be okay without milk, he’s big enough.”

“How-?” Vex looked up at her brother and raised an eyebrow. He simply sighed and rubbed his eyes, still pulling himself into the world of the waking. “Okay. Are we taking him to the pound?”

“No.” The rubbing was now accompanied by a low groan.

“Another mouth to feed.” A statement, not a question, but some things between them didn’t need to be said.

“Yes.” Vax groaned, and slid his hands back down to his cheeks rather than his eyes, staring at where the puppy was racing in excited circles, then over to him with a wiggling body and flailing tail. Slowly, he reached out and touched the makeshift collar.

“Why’d you put that trinket around his neck?” her brother asked, slight confusion mixed with disdain in his voice as he ran his fingers over the surface of the small carving.

“Because that’s his name,” she huffed, scooping him up protectively in her arms. “Trinket.” Her brother raised an eyebrow, fully aware she’d come up with that on the spot, but his expression softened as a wet doggy tongue slathered over her cheek and ear with enthusiastic kisses.

“Fine. You’re feeding him, though.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

* * *

Vex smiled to herself, looking down at where Trinket sighed contentedly in her lap. She was happy with where she was now, with a home, with family, with friends. It had been a long road to the family she knew now, and while it was good to get away for a bit, it was more of a home than she had ever dreamed of before. Gently, she nudged her best friend up from his contented nap and started to jog home, him excitedly bounding beside her, always faithful.

It was time to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this took forever to finish. My muse has decided to abandon me for a while, with a bonus side dish of taking the maximum course load of 22 units (usually people take 16 or so). So apologies! Also, my usual editor has not looked over this, so please, if there are errors, please inform me! And as always, your comments and critiques mean the world to me. Thank you so much for reading and please, please, please comment!


End file.
